Conan’s Free As A Bird Now…But Yes, We’ll Still Remember Him

by Rachel Sklar | 6:35 pm, January 23rd, 2010

» 5 comments

Conan O’Brien‘s final Tonight Show finished off by showing the ~~longtime~~ seven-months-long host grabbing a guitar, loosening his tie, and positively shredding in an epic closer: Lynrd Skynrd’s rock classic “Freebird” featuring his first Tonight Show guest Will Ferrell, complete with pregnant wife Viveca Paulin and cowbell; Ben Harper, ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons, Beck, and Conan’s longtime bandleader Max Weinberg on the drums. It was a great moment, with two lines that stick out as appropriate: “I’m as free as a bird now, and a bird you cannot change” seems like it could well be directed at NBC and Dick Ebersol (and Ebersol’s “notes” to Conan on how he could “improve” his show) — if anything has shown that Conan’s brand of comedy has an audience, it’s the response to his departure, not to mention the pretty amazing collection of clips detailing the work he and his team did for his Tonight Show‘s short run. The second line is this one: “If I leave here tomorrow, will you still remember me?” That one isn’t hard.

*There is one little irony here: Prior to the “Freebird” rock-out, Neil Young performed “Long May You Run” — wonder if he was bemused to have been followed up by Skynrd, with whom he had a musical feud back in the day — Young wrote “Southern Man” and Skynrd responded by flipping off Young in “Sweet Home Alabama”: “Well I heard Mr. Young sing about it, Well I heard old Neil put ‘er down, well I hope Neil Young will remember, Southern Man don’t need him around anyhow.” Small little note, but I liked it.

http://www.sailrabbits.com Magister

I thought the music was nice and rocking, but Ferrell doesn’t really have the chops for the song and his hamming toward the end caused the cameraperson to have to work to keep Conan in the frame.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Maikeru-Ronin/100000646737597 Maikeru Ronin

Just to correct the record: the “feud” between Neil Young and Lynyrd Skynyrd only existed in the imaginations of the scores of people who have misread the lyrics of “Sweet Home Alabama”. In real life Ronnie Van Zant & Neil Young were good friends, and the band were openly critical of racism and George Wallace. At worst, the LZ response song was a mild reminder that not all “southern men” were bigoted rednecks.
sarainitaly

I just finished watching the show. Conan – total class act. his comments at the end were very sweet. I wanted to double check that that was Beck I saw – thanks! I thought it was him, but wasn’t sure. What a fun ending!
SWWT

So in the end, Jimmy Fallon still has a show. This was a complete disaster for NBC.
http://trickletown.vox.com/ Trickletown

Poignant lyric moment for me; Neil Young bringing to mind the idea that Conan, in “Long May You Run” might be hanging out with the Beach Boys singing “Caroline No”. That was just too sweet!